We never close
by missantagonist1
Summary: Horatio Caine and his team are always ready to mete out the justice for those who cannot speak for themselves anymore: Horatio investigates brutal murder of a young student, meanwhile Megan and Calleigh try to solve their case and the outcomes are unexpected…
1. Double face 1

**Disclaimer that applies to whole fic so I do not need to repeat in every chapter: The only thing I own is a plot and original characters.**

Just quick info before you start reading. The timeline is **pre-season one**. Yeah, Tim is back so is Megan. I nearly forgot about her. I'm recently back in the fandom, after four years, so feel free to correct me if you see a context mistakes.

There will be no CanonxOC or slash/femslash. And for any 'canon parings', nothing more than what was in the show.

The summary after the colon will change with every new case.

**Warnings**:Violence, lots of violence. It's CSI. And some sexual references. Nothing will be explicit or descriptive, but if anything like that would happen, I will post the heavier stuff on _Archive on our own_.

* * *

Lottie laughed loudly when she again lost her footing on steps to her academic room and tripped over. Her knee hurt but she decided to ignore it. She would worry tomorrow about the bruise that would form during the night. Most likely, she wouldn't even remember when and where she got it as a hangover would not let her think straight. She just hopped that her friend, Carrie, was in the room and the door will be open and the bed will be made. Otherwise, she would need to find a place to crash and that would be troublesome as everyone she knew were on a party and are in the same state as he is.

The corridor to her room was dark and, of course, empty. The only sound was her shoes. The heels made clicking noise and knowing that some of girls on the flood were extra sensitive, Lottie tried to walk on her tiptoes and that was nearly impossible in her red, 7 inches heels. Her feet were killing her. Choosing such high heels was not a best decision to wear when you plan dancing wildly. Taking the shoes off would be another impossible thing to achieve being drunk – clasps were too small for her tipsy fingers.

Lottie muffled another wave of laugh when her balance was challenged once again. Her attempt to keep the quiet flew away when the green bottle of wine, from the party, crashed on the white flooring. The glass shattered with painful for ears sound. The noise echoed through the corridor. Lottie looked at the mess she made with baffled and drunk expression. The red liquid splashed on around her and on her lower legs. Her hand went to cover her mouth. Lottie looked around innocently in case her mother would come as scolded for making the noise and being drunk.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Lottie jumped and looked over her shoulder to the speaker. Seeing her friend from the floor, she tried to look as sober as possible while waving like flag on the wind.

"Nothing! Just doing to my room, you know." She waved her hand in direction of her room. Her mate, Alice, from the floor only dressed in blue pyjama, did not look convinced as she raised her eyebrow. The woman stepped closer, but took a step back when she puffed out. Alice made grimace – disgust was on her face.

"You also look like hell!" Alice growled. She looked over Lottie seeing her legs covered in something red. Lottie stood in something red as well. Around her was shattered glass. Alice put add one to one, before saying "Just go to your room and stop making noise. People want to sleep."

"Reeally, strange," Lottie hiccupped "you are the only people here." She stabbed her finger in Alice shoulder, before covering her mouth again. "I gonna be sick!"

"Don't you dare! Come on, I help you this time." The young woman grabbed Lottie by her shoulder leading her toward the girl's room. She clenched her jaw when Lottie nearly went down, because of her ridiculous shoes. Fortunately, Lottie's room was near. Alice opened the door violently, throwing Lottie inside. As she stepped into the room, she tripped over something that was lying on the ground.

"Fuck, here I thought that Carrie was better at keeping the room clean." Alice said looking around the room. It was complete mess. There was also strong metallic smell. Then her eyes fell on the lone figure on the bed. Just as the scream tore from her mouth, she heard Lottie vomiting.

* * *

"Alexx what can you say?" The black-haired woman looked up to meet the gaze of the red-haired man standing in the door. She sighed heavily. The woman moved to kneeled next to a bed covered in pool of blood. She ran her latex gloved hand though dark hairs of the victim. The girl look young, too young to die, but for her everyone was too young.

"Looking at the blood around lower back and legs, it clearly shows that she bleed to death." She indicated area with her finger. "My poor baby girl, who did that to you? Horatio, that bastard stabbed her with the bedpost through her lower regions. It didn't take long, but she was in great pain. Sweetheart had died at last six hours ago judging by her rigor mortis. I will be able tell you more after dissection.

"Sexual assault? Can you determine it now?"

"As I said, I will tell more after the autopsy, but every pathologist without it, can say that it was that. Having bedpost stuck inside of you is not usual." Alexx stated all-knowingly, shaking her head. She moved over the girl's head and opened her mouth. "There are no cuts but she could bit him if he forced her." Alexx picked up left hand "Not much of struggle. Some bruises on the arms. Look like hand, and they weren't created post-mortem. The attacker must have been stronger and bigger than you, right honey." Horatio smiled at Alexx talking. For someone who had never met and work with the woman before, her talking to the dead could be considered as creepy. "If I find something I will send it to the lab." She finished softly.

"And we will be waiting. Thank you, Alexx." The red-haired man looked around, stepping more inside the crime scene. He heard Alexx says to her men that they can take victim the dissecting room and she was out of the room.

The place was trashed – books were thrown on the floor; bookcase was destroyed; there were pieces of glass scattered everywhere. The second bed, which probably belonged to victims' roommate, was lacking the bedpost, but other than that it looked fairly normally in compare to the other one. The girl's bed was covered in her blood and a bit of green carpet as well.

Room looked as if nothing went missing, but wardrobe was open and the clothes look as if someone went through them in hurry. The school books and notebooks were also removed out of the desk.

Horatio stopped in the middle of the room, putting his hand on hips, showing off his gold badge and the gun. On his neck he had his black sunglass. The Lieutenant tilled his head to the left, his eyes narrowed. He looked at his younger colleague who was taking the photos of the crime scene. Speed was moving from one place to another to get better lighting and quality of the picture. "If the sexual assault is correct and the girl was fighting, that would explain why we have such mess, thou." The CSI said and looked at the Speedle, "Speed?" Was all that he needed to say and the younger, black-haired man started speaking.

"Well," He waved the camera to specify the place he was speaking about. "Obviously, they were fighting or at least he as the girl might have been treated like sack of potatoes." Tim took a picture, leaning forward "Whole bookcase was destroyed. Some shelves are wrenched. Our assaulter had enough strength to throw fully growth victim. That would help to narrow suspect. Not everyone has that strength. And looking at the cracking, we can hopefully find some prints or flake of a skin. Maybe our murderer got a cut or a scratch."

"Good, what do you think about broken glasses. There might be prints if they were drinking before things got nasty." Horatio looked at the shards of wine glasses. His gaze fell at the bigger fragment where he saw drops of blood. "Definitely, check the glass. It might help to identify the culprit."

"Sure, but it might take a while to put piece together. It looks like there was more than two glasses." Tim scratched back of his head as eyed tiny shard of something that looked like wine glass before. It will take lots of coffee cups, he thought nodding his head. "Anyway, I will leave it for Delko to collect it. He should be here in a minute. Last to come, get the worse.

Horatio smiled, "Alright. Keep me informed."

The CSI dressed in black suit and dark blue button-down shirt stepped out of the room, leaving Speedle with the patrol officer. Outside in the corridor, waiting for him was detective Sevillia with small white notebook and a frown on her face.

"Everything is alright?" He asked, knowing that news she had were nowhere near good. Detective Sevillia could be very expressive when she had bad information or when something went wrong during standard procedures.

"You wouldn't believe it." She snapped, closing her notebook and crossing arms over the chest.

"Try me."

She snorted, "No-one heard anything. Entire floor, ten rooms with two people inside. No screaming, no suspicious noises, nothing. The witnesses are two girls. The first one is Charlotte or Lottie Clinton. Roommate of our vic, left around 6pm came back in the morning from the party heavily stocked with alcohol. That's all I've got, that girl is too drunk to speak soberly, Horatio." Adelle finished sounding frustrated.

"Take her to holding cell to sober, and then she might be more helpful. And the other one is…?"

"Alice Lyles. Says that only heard Clinton coming and making the noise in the hall. Apparently, the wine in the corridor belongs to Clinton. She came out from her room hearing the noise and when her drunken friend wanted to vomit, she got her to the room and that's how they founded Carrie Abbott. They went to janitor, who called for us. He also knows nothing. How no-one heard anything? Isn't he supposed to watch over the building?"

Horatio looked at Adelle with thoughtful expression when something caught his attention. He tilled his head to the left and with the hand he directed Adelle.

"What?" She looked where Horatio showed with his hand and almost snorted again. Horatio Caine and his infamous sixth sense.

"No-one heard but someone seen." She moved her gaze from camera to Horatio, to his back that was moving away. She was also sure he had his sunglasses on.

* * *

[1] I know it is misspelled. I did that for a purpose. And the mistake with people as well.


	2. Double face 2

"The victim is Mary Scott. She was found by her mother." Megan stated as soon as Calleigh went inside a room, and went back to taking photos "Unfortunately, the mother seeing her daughter in the state we see her, went into a shock. Paramedics took her to Miami General."

CSI Duquesne could not blame the poor woman. The girl was young, most likely in her mid-twenties. She had whole life to live. Her face had frozen with a fear. The skin was slowly turning greenish.

"Has coroner been here or we have to wait for him?"

"Alexx should be here in twenty minutes. Horatio needed her as well." Megan putted away her camera. She narrowed her brown eye when soothing catch her attention. Slowly, she moved towards the thing.

Calleigh seen her superior kneeling by the dark spot on the white, fluffy carpet, asked, "Know what is it?"

Megan tilled her head a bit. The dark thing in the carpet looked like a soil which should not be here as the victim's house had concrete ground. "Looks like someone brought us surprise in form of soil. Could you give me specimen mount?" Megan drew her hand towards her silver box. Calleigh gave the woman small, transparent bottle with the cup that will collect evidence. "It could help to find where our suspect is." Megan once again looked at the soil, but this time in the glass bottle then moved her gaze to the victim.

The girl lay on a brown leather couch with her stomach ripped, leaving huge hole in the place where abdomen was. The dried blood was everywhere – couch, coffee table, floor and ceiling.

"The ceiling," Calleigh said to herself, but Megan heard her clearly.

The Day Shift Supervisor looked at the body fluid that caught attention of blonde Louisiana girl. Megan tilled her head backwards to get the better look at the blood on the ceiling. The bodily fluid was dried like the rest, but still clear to identify. She traced invisible line from blood to direction of a glass door. "The splatters…They are above the victim and are sprayed towards the exit."

Calleigh looked at the victim again, "That would mean that the suspect first stabbed her then pulled out the murder weapon with medium force, as the splatter indicate." Calleigh imitated the assault. Then she looked at the ceiling. "The angle is more on the right from the vic and that suggest our culprit was right-handed."

"Great, that makes 70-90 percent people with dominant right hand to be our suspects and 30 percent people who are mixed." Megan snapped in conclusion.

"It's a shame that we don't have database of right and left handed people," Duquesne took a photo and carefully knelt by the bloody poodle, "However, we done have shoeprints database." From her silver box, she took big enough adhesive lifting tape for shoeprints.

Megan stared at the print that her subordinate had collected. The print was detailed only because the suspect must have stepped in to flesh blood – the patterns of the sole were small rectangles. The inner of the sole was shaped into crosses with rounded shoulders. The only thing that was missing in the print was the middle of the shoes. There was blank space. "Any idea what kind of shoes leaves such print?"

Calleigh shook her head, "I would say some traveling boots. I'll give this to the trace. Hopefully, something would come up." The blonde putted the evidence into transparent bag and sealed it with red tape writing a date and her initials.

"We have our victim, our crime scene, possible suspect but where is our weapon?" Calleigh turned around to get a better view at the room. It was impossibly clean and nearly empty. All kept in white and silvery colour. Things that stood on shelves did not look like possible murder weapon – none was sharp enough to cause such hole in the girl's stomach.

"That was exactly my thought," Meagan walked over to Calleigh. "The suspect knew what he was doing and hid it or he panicked and took it. Either way, it means more work for us. Go to hospital and see if mother can give us the statement. I will finish here and we will meet in the lab." Megan ordered firmly.

"Sure. See you later" Duquesne collected her silver box and went to her Hummer that waited outside the victim's house.

If not the yellow tapes, the neighbours and the reporters would surely get inside. The police officers patiently ignored questions that were thrown at them by the media. Calleigh took deep breath and went under the police tape. The vultures took her as their next prey. The CSI had problem to recognise words when the mass of people started at once talking to her. So, she politely answered, "Everything in under control and for now I'm not allowed to tell you anything." She smile to the cameras and putted her sunglasses on.

* * *

"Gentlemen," Eric jumped hearing Horatio's voice. He sent Tim dark glare, when he read his friend laughing. "What do we have?"

Tim who was by the computers talked first. "Alexx send back the victims clothing and some samples of a skin taken from under of the nails. She also sends the bedpost. Our lab techs are checking it." With the hand movement the CSI point out other lab rooms. "I've also been running the DNA through CODIS but nothing came up yet. The same thing with the samples from the shelves. It's been three hours." Speed murmured under his nose the last part. This time Delko snorted at him from his place at assembly table. "

"And the clothes?" Horatio ignored boys' behaviour. Sometimes he felt that both of his younger colleagues were still stuck in a kindergarten and not in their workplace. The red-head moved to stand by Tim to have better look at the computer screen. As always he placed his hands on his hips.

"Green fibre. That's for sure. The results came with ballistic nylon. It's mostly used in flak jackets. It's quite strong material so I think it was already ripped. I did further research and I found out that the jacket our suspect wore is only made in bulk and for the order."

"How many shops in Miami match?"

"Only four. It will take some time but the good thing - the orders should be on the papers. And not many people buy this so it might give our investigation some light."

"Go and check those places." Horatio ordered.

Tim nodded and lazily exited the room and went in direction of detectives work places.

Caine looked at Eric. Before the younger man, on the assembly table laid tiny shards of glasses. Some of they were starting to look like the wine glasses. "How is this going on?"

"I putted them into Superglue fuming to get the prints. And it looks like there were more than two people there – at least four." Eric showed with the finger three different, partial prints. "I have one running already."

"Good, if you have something…

"Keep you posted, right." Eric cut away Horatio. The older men snickered indivisibly and exited the room – the interrogation was waiting.

Adelle was already waiting by the interrogation room with irritated expression. Just as he was in the rage of hearing her she spoke, "One of these days, the teenagers will force me to retire." She uncrossed her arms and went inside the black room.

The girl sitting at the table looked exhausted. The blue blouse she had looked too big for her small frame. She was pale and her eyes were puffy and red. Clinton's hands were shaking uncontrollably. The black-haired girl looked at them when they entered into the room.

"When can I go home?" She asked desperately. Her voice was shaky.

"When we think you can go, then you can go." Adelle snapped and move to stand by the right side of the table. Horatio himself sat in the chair to make the girl feel more comfortable. The men folded his hand and slightly tilled the head to the left.

"Charlotte," He said softly. That got girls attention. "I need to know what happened last night."

"I… I… I really don't remember. I drank too much…" She stuttered and bit her lip to stop from crying. "I think… I went to our – Carrie's and mine – room and we found her. But nothing else…"

Horatio nodded and looked at Adelle. The woman was observing the teenager very closely with narrowed eyes. "Well, then what did you do before you went on the party?" Detective Sevillia said leaning forward – one hand on the table, other on the hip.

Lottie furrowed brows and scratch her temple to help herself to remind the previous day. All of her moves were shaky and nervous. "Nothing happened. Carrie was really excited, thou. But I don't know why. She was also talking about Alice…

The knocking on the door shut girl's mouth. Eric's head peeked behind the door. "H, I have something for you."

"Excuse me," Horatio raised and walked outside after Delko.

"The fingerprint's result came." He gave a brown folder to Horatio and crossed his arms.

The older man immediately opened the document. "The finger print belongs to Alice Lyles."


End file.
